


We're All Ashamed Sometime

by Dirty_Corza



Category: The Patriot (2000)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-17
Updated: 2012-07-17
Packaged: 2017-11-10 04:20:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/462137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dirty_Corza/pseuds/Dirty_Corza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabble-ish</p>
<p>Martin decides it's his duty to make sure Wilkins knows what happened in the war wasn't his fault.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're All Ashamed Sometime

Benjamin Martin had been young, once. Young, and full of fury. He'd never forget that time. Not only the horrors he had done, but the sick pleasure he had felt when he had done it. Nothing could erase that in his mind, and he fought hard to fight it. That was what had kept him from the war for so long. He didn't want to be that man again. He wouldn't be able to live with himself after.

\- - -

Captain Wilkins had once thought himself an honorable man. He once thought a cause worth fighting for was something to be proud of. He learned his lesson. War was not a gentleman's act. Betraying neighbors, murdering people you once counted as friends. He threw the first torch, and at that moment he knew there was no going back. He had crossed a line, and though no one would remember his crimes, no one would punish him for them, he'd never forgive himself.

\- - -

"Wilkins. I heard you were spending more time at a pub than in your own home. I had hoped it wouldn't be true." Benjamin Martin sat beside the dark haired man hunched over a pint of beer, frowning at the sight. "You'll kill yourself like this. Maybe not the drinking, but the pistol in your belt. I know you're thinking about it."

Navy eyes glared up at him, bloodshot, and full of pain. "And I deserve no better. After what I've done- How can I live with myself? How can I go back to my family? Can you tell me that? You didn't see it, you didn't condemn good men and women, and children for christ's sake, to their deaths. You didn't hunt them down like a dog. Like you were nothing more than an animal."

"No I didn't. Not this time." Martin stood up, grabbing Wilkin's arm and pulling him up as well. "You're going to come with me. Because we were friends once, and now the war is over and done with, we can perhaps be something of the sort once more" 

He pulled him out the rear entrance to the club, managing to avoid most of the crowd as they left. Wilkins simply allowed him to lead, stumbling as they walked together out into the pasture behind the pub. Martin huffed in annoyance, pulling the man up by his arm till he was standing straight. "We're going to sober you up. Because you have a family to take care of, and by god I will see to it you do your duty."

"Why do you even care?" Wilkins looked at the man holding him up with confusion in his eyes. "After all the evil, vile things I've done, why do you care?"

Martin pulled him close, until their foreheads were pressed together, until they were breathing the same breath. "Why do I care? Because, Wilkins, I know exactly what you're feeling right now. And I don't want a man I knew as a friend to become a dead man when I could have helped save his life."

They were still for a moment, alone in the darkness, simply standing like that, pressed so close together they could feel each other's heartbeats through their shirts. One breath, two, they took them in time with each other. Slowly, they leaned closer together, heated breath mingling as their lip drew cloer together.

"This is how you save me?" there was a hint of disbelief in Wilkin's voice, and a sliver of desire.

"This time, yes, it is." Their lips met, slowly, deliberately. A moment of contact before they drew apart once more. "Come along, now. We've got to get you inside somewhere private. Drunk kisses in a field aren't going to get you sober."

"And what are?"

Martin leaned in to press his lips against Wilkins' ear, "Well, you'll just have to wait and see. I may not have the most approved of methods, but as far as a cure for lack of self worth goes, I'm sure I have it."

Wilkins shivered, but nodded, eyes wide as he stared at the man who couldn't be hinting at- but it seemed he was. He himself was at a loss to convince himself to turn back now. Just a few, hinting words, and he was willing to do most anything for the man. 

"I don't understand the why, why you would do this, but, thank you." His lips pressed into a stubble covered cheek before he pulled away, allowing himself to be led away, into darkness and mystery, to whatever fate awaited him.

"Don't thank me yet, though I appreciate the vote of confidence." There was a hint of laughter in his voice as Martin led Wilkins away, into the darkness, and it was infectious, soon soft chuckles rang in the dark night. The first true laughter either of them had uttered since the war.


End file.
